I have catagorised this post under KonMari as a big part of the method is getting rid of unwanted items from your life, those which do not Spark Joy… I have tried to go through and throw out clothes before (by throw out, for clarity, I mean donate to charity) and have never been successful as always wondered if it would come in or whether I could layer it to make it work if it had shrunk in the wash and then there was the whole slow downgrade system, from going out, to day, to gym, to pjs, to painting, so by the time it went in the charity bag I imagine they couldn’t have got a lot for it. My donations were never as bad as those in the video below but I wanted to share it with you as it really did make me think about giving to charity in a mindful way…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXnxs1FXgWQ
It was this programme Mary Queen of Charity Shops which really turned round my thinking about donating for the first time, yes they have a rag collection at most charity shops, so if your clothes are at the point of needing to be recycled rather than re-sold it is worth putting them in but you equally shouldn’t have any quants about donating good quality and branded items to charity, in fact we should all aim to do it at least a couple of times a year, because doing that will actually give these charities a profit instead of a loss. And if you are like me and love the whole charity shop system, recycling, donating & less waste. And like me also find it hard to sell anything myself on eBay (though I love it for bargain shopping) then donating your quality unwanted items to charity is definitely the way to go 🙂 And you should feel good about it when you do, feel good about the profits you’re giving to these charities and the special finds which you are giving to the punters at the end.
You can read and watch more about Mary Portas’ work with Save the Children at this link. Hope you do. 🙂
I did originally start writing this in my KonMari post on sorting my clothes, but then figured it was a long enough and important enough subject to have as it’s own post. I hope it will make you stop and think about donating to charity as it did with me 🙂 Happy decluttering, recycling and thrifting x
Try to choose charity shops where you can gift-aid your donations. You can do this if you are a UK tax payer and then the charity will receive 25% extra from the government. I do this with Barnardos. They even email to tell me how much has been raised by my donations. 🙂 Mumxx
Fab Tip – thanks Mum 🙂 I have one of those in Ampthill, I think it’s the Mercy in Action Shop, I think Oxfam do that too 🙂 xxx